Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid

Fresh from the mind of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid comes One Thousand Museum, only recently revealed and primed to change the shape of the downtown Miami skyline. The condo tower will replace the BP gas station currently situation between 900 Biscayne and Ten Museum Park. Planned to house both half- and full-floor residence, duplex townhomes, and a duplex penthouse, One Thousand Museum will cap at over 60 floors and sport a spider-like design in Hadid’s first foray into the U.S. residential market.

The developers of the project are anticipating a minimum unit cost of $4 million with penthouses in the range of $30 million, prices running two to fifteen times the average footage costs of a new downtown condo. The $300 million project would see the tower join the ranks of the Biscayne Bay high-rise condos known as the Four Horsemen. The design premise of the tower will be unique among its peers with its “futuristic” interlacing exterior, asymmetric midsection, and ribbed balconies located on the lower floors.

“We love Miami, and we feel we can create a beautiful addition to the skyline that will define the skyline in a new way,’’ Zaha Hadid Architects director Patrik Schumacher said. “I think it will have a new kind of appeal.’’

The experimental design choices have caused viewers to liken the images of the proposed project to a bug or a kind of alien vessel. But the appearance is more than simply an aesthetic decision, the varying widths of the tower also allows for larger units. However, both Hadid and the developers intentionally set out to challenge the conventional “stacked-balconies-on-a-podium” design found so commonly in Miami condo towers.

The high-rise structure will be aimed at the top end of the luxury market and will offer large units ranging between an anticipated 4,500 square feet to 9,000 square feet.

Watch Zaha Hadid's introduction video:

Renderings of One Thousand Museum:

See more pictures here